Cyber security engineer vs senior security analyst

The differences between cyber security engineers and senior security analysts can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a cyber security engineer and a senior security analyst. Additionally, a senior security analyst has an average salary of $103,571, which is higher than the $99,492 average annual salary of a cyber security engineer.

The top three skills for a cyber security engineer include cyber security, python and linux. The most important skills for a senior security analyst are NIST, incident response, and cloud security.

Cyber security engineer vs senior security analyst overview

	Cyber Security Engineer	Senior Security Analyst
Yearly salary	$99,492	$103,571
Hourly rate	$47.83	$49.79
Growth rate	32%	32%
Number of jobs	73,419	61,108
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 65%
Average age	42	42
Years of experience	6	6

What does a cyber security engineer do?

A cyber security engineer specializes in designing and establishing security measures to protect a company's network and data from hackers or cyber attacks. Their responsibilities primarily revolve around planning and implementing cyber security systems, responding to any problems or concerns, handling security breaches and emergencies, and troubleshooting to identify any issues or vulnerabilities. Moreover, a cyber security engineer may perform clerical tasks such as producing progress reports and documentation, creating instructional materials for systems, managing schedules, and coordinating with department managers, all while adhering to the company's policies and regulations.

What does a senior security analyst do?

A senior security analyst is a digital professional who creates and implements firewalls and software systems to protect data and prevent attacks on private data. Senior security analysts aim to identify weaknesses in a network's security system and prevent breaches from occurring. Within larger organizations, senior security analysts are required to work with professionals who specialize in networking, information technology (IT), and computer system. They must also design security protocols and systems to better protect their customers and user data.

Cyber security engineer vs senior security analyst salary

Cyber security engineers and senior security analysts have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Cyber Security Engineer	Senior Security Analyst
Average salary	$99,492	$103,571
Salary range	Between $75,000 And $131,000	Between $79,000 And $135,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	California	California
Best paying company	Dotdash	Coinbase
Best paying industry	Technology	Government

Differences between cyber security engineer and senior security analyst education

There are a few differences between a cyber security engineer and a senior security analyst in terms of educational background:

	Cyber Security Engineer	Senior Security Analyst
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 65%
Most common major	Computer Science	Business
Most common college	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Stanford University

Cyber security engineer vs senior security analyst demographics

Here are the differences between cyber security engineers' and senior security analysts' demographics:

	Cyber Security Engineer	Senior Security Analyst
Average age	42	42
Gender ratio	Male, 83.8% Female, 16.2%	Male, 76.5% Female, 23.5%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.2% Unknown, 6.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.0% Asian, 9.6% White, 65.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%	Black or African American, 9.2% Unknown, 6.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.0% Asian, 9.6% White, 65.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between cyber security engineer and senior security analyst duties and responsibilities

Cyber security engineer example responsibilities.

Facilitate and manage weekly meetings between CyberCom, DISA and all OSD components.
Manage security patching life cycle and approve change control requests, firewall rules and DLP policies.
Manage, configure, and maintain all servers within the environments, including Cisco network routers, switches, and firewalls.
Lead security authorization efforts to obtain and maintain an authorization to operate (ATO) for customers' core financial system.
Manage efforts to consolidate customer VPN infrastructure.
Lead numerous DLP upgrades and process improvements and successfully implement application security program.

Senior security analyst example responsibilities.

Supervise and manage information security assets associate with DISA STIGS and HBSS.
Utilize Unix utilities and management packages to analyze and manage traffic flow in the corporate backbone.
Manage GLBA security awareness and training program and annual information security awareness activities.
Introduce dashboards to identify preemptive attacks on corporate perimeter using intrusion detection and web application firewall technologies.
Evaluate DoD security tools; determine compatibility issues with existing network configuration/infrastructure, and present conclusions to management.
Contribute in defining time tables and SIEM project plans.

Cyber security engineer vs senior security analyst skills

Common cyber security engineer skills

Cyber Security, 17%
Python, 5%
Linux, 4%
Architecture, 4%
NIST, 4%
Incident Response, 4%

Common senior security analyst skills

NIST, 7%
Incident Response, 5%
Cloud Security, 4%
Encryption, 4%
Firewall, 4%
Switches, 4%

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Cyber Security Engineer vs Senior Security Analyst

Updated January 8, 2025

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